Abstract
BackgroundInfertility-related stress can seriously impact the fertility quality of life (QoL) of infertile women. Resilience, as a coping resource, can effectively combat psychological stress. This study aimed to evaluate the fertility QoL of infertile women and to examine whether resilience moderates the association of infertility-related stress with fertility QoL.MethodsThis cross-sectional study was conducted in northeast of China from December 2017 to February 2018. Out of 559 women outpatients with infertility, 498 (89.1%) completed self-reported questionnaires including the FertiQoL Scale, Fertility Problem Inventory (FPI) and Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC). Hierarchical multiple regression analysis and simple slope analysis were applied to explore the influencing factors related to fertility QoL as well as to examine the moderating effect of resilience on the association of infertility-related stress with fertility QoL.ResultsThe mean FertiQoL score was 64.54 ± 16.90 among the participants. Household monthly income and causes of infertility were significantly related to fertility QoL. In addition, infertility-related stress was negatively related to fertility QoL, and resilience was positively associated with fertility QoL, explaining 36.3% of the variance. Resilience moderated the association of infertility-related stress with fertility QoL. Specifically, the effect of infertility-related stress on fertility QoL varied by low(1 SD below the mean, B = - 0.496, β = - 0.714, P < 0.001), mean (B = - 0.293, β = - 0.422, P < 0.001) and high (1 SD above the mean, B = - 0.090, β = - 0.130, P < 0.001) levels of resilience. The higher resilience was, the weaker the effect of infertility-related stress on fertility QoL was.ConclusionsOverall, women with infertility in China had relatively low FertiQoL scores. Resilience influenced the association of infertility-related stress with fertility QoL. Infertile patients’ psychological status must be addressed and adequate resilience-based interventions such as mindfulness-based skills should be provided to improve fertility QoL of women with infertility.
Highlights
Infertility-related stress can seriously impact the fertility quality of life (QoL) of infertile women
In the present study, we aimed to evaluate the fertility QoL among these patients to examine whether resilience moderates the association of infertility-related stress with fertility QoL and to find solutions to improve fertility QoL
Participants whose monthly income exceeded 4000 yuan experienced a higher level of fertility QoL compared with patients whose household monthly income was below 4000 yuan (t = 2.446, P = 0.015), and the patients with infertility due to female factors reported lower fertility QoL than the other groups (t = 4.079, P = 0.007)
Summary
Infertility-related stress can seriously impact the fertility quality of life (QoL) of infertile women. This study aimed to evaluate the fertility QoL of infertile women and to examine whether resilience moderates the association of infertility-related stress with fertility QoL. Infertility can lead to various physical, psychological and societal consequences, such as depression, anxiety, stigma and social isolation, which may significantly impact patients’ fertility quality of life (QoL) [5,6,7]. Fertility QoL involves a reflection of infertile patients’ life status during their infertile period in a broad sense. A large number of studies revealed that compared with the fertile counterparts, infertile women experienced poorer QoL during the period of infertility [9,10,11]. The identification of the influencing factors of fertility QoL makes it possible to conduct targeted interventions and care activities in an integrated way to improve the fertility QoL of women with infertility, which necessitates our study
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